IATP Hog Report - Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

Section 5
and other training for its slaughter-processing plant. 99
Seaboard also benefited from a lack of clarity in state government
definitions. It was viewed as a regular Oklahoma corporation as well as an
agricultural enterprise. This allowed Seaboard:
both manufacturing and agricultural exemptions, financing
of the hog lagoons by Industrial Revenue Bonds as
manufacturing facilities, as well as an agricultural
exemption from sales tax as a farming facility [M]any of
these sources of support are not available to noncorporate
hog producers. 100
The NCRCD researchers conclude that the true "cost" of a job in the hog
industry in Texas County and Guymon, its county seat, is over 50% higher
than the average wages paid to the employees. 101 This true cost is
comprised of tax incentives, tax rebates, and permissive land lease
agreements; human costs including education and security issues; and
environmental costs including air pollution, water and soil degradation,
and odor.
Frequently, hog factory proponents claim that the rise of corporate hog
factories and other concentrated animal feeding operations is an inevitable
outcome of market forces at work. The NCRCD researchers point out that
the industrial recruitment strategy that brought Seaboard Corporation to
Texas County and Guymon is a case of "state-directed, rather than market
driven, in troduction of new economic activity." 102
The NCRCD researchers concluded that the main beneficiaries of the
arrangement between Texas County, Oklahoma, and Seaboard
Corporation are the stockholders of Seaboard. 103 Seventy-five percent of
shares in Seaboard are owned by a single Boston family that runs the
corporation. 104 The NCRCD report concludes about the impacts on
employment and community well-being: 105
Missouri
What was needed was not new jobs but a chance to lessen
the gap among locals by creating wealth from within the
region rather than from outside. The emphasis on
economic development favors job creation, without
recognizing the types of jobs that are being created or
whether the community was as socially and culturally
prepared as a community development approach would
encourage.
http://www.iatp.org/hogreport/sec5.html (20 of 38)2/27/2006 3:50:13 AM